Nomadic Tuareg rebels settle for lectures on peace

Tuareg leaders who rebelled against central government in 1990 and 1995 are now engaged in a workshop designed to give them skills that will reintroduce them to peaceful civilian life, an official of Niger's High Commissioner for Reconstruction and Peace told IRIN on Wednesday. The official, Lieutenant Colonel Senyi Garba, said some 50 former rebel leaders started the week-long workshop on Monday to learn about the country's fiscal and customs laws, accounting, management and commercial and administrative issues. The meeting, being held in Tahoua some 375 km northeast of the capital, Niamey, is the result of three peace accords which led to the end of the war in 1995 between the government and the separatist Tuareg movement. Under a programme on good management of the economy and promotion of good governance, the UNDP said it had supported the activities of the High Commission for the Restoration of Peace.